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Sharks beat Warriors in extra time for HS Boys Futsal title

Fri, 11/23/2012 - 11:03pm

The Samoana Sharks beat the Tafuna Warriors 6-5 in a thrilling ASHSAA Boys Futsal championship game that went the distance plus extra time to determine the winner on Nov. 15, 2012 at Samoana High School.

With 23 seconds left and the match on the verge of a penalty shootout, Henry Lameta toed in the winning goal in a wild scramble amongst Tafuna and Samoana players for possession of the ball.

That goal sealed the win and back-to-back championship titles for the Samoana Sharks, having won it last year with almost the exact same squad.

Samoana looked to have had this match in the bag with a 3-1 lead with less than 10 minutes remaining in the second half. But the Sharks’ accumulated fouls caught up with them as they were charged with their sixth with just under nine minutes to play.

Once a team accumulates six fouls the opposing team gets a penalty kick from the 2nd penalty mark and Ryan Paaga blasted two past the goalie to tie the match at 3-3 with 3:20 on the clock.

With 1:35 to play Tafuna went over the foul limit and Kaleopa Siligi put the Sharks up 4-3. It took the Warriors only 17 seconds to tie up again when Tafuna went for a quick restart of the kickoff and Sam Kome blasted a shot just a yard away from midcourt into the back of the net for the 4-4 tie.

This ensured another 10 minutes of extra time broken up into two halves of five minutes each.

In the first half the Warriors went up 5-4 with 2:14 left in the period on a goal by Lorenzo Tauanuu. In the second, Lameta scored twice to seal the win for the Sharks as he scored the equalizer with 1:48 remaining on the clock before the eventual game-winner with 23 seconds to play.

Siligi was named the season’s MVP while teammate Ne’emia Kaleopa was awarded with the championship game’s MVP award. Kaleopa scored twice for Samoana in the title match.

Liatama Amisone Jr., of the Samoana Sharks was awarded with the coach of the year award.